McDonald's executives acknowledged that the company's prices have been high and they are taking a "forensic approach" to evaluating offerings.
McDonald’s executives acknowledged during an earnings call Monday that diners consider the company’s prices too high, and said they are taking a “forensic approach” to evaluating prices.
Amid a broader consumer pullback and increasing prices, fast-food chains have had a difficult time drawing in lower-income diners.
The company’s recent $5 value meal offering was initially successful in bringing lower-income diners back to stores but has yet to translate into higher sales, company executives said.
Personally I stopped eating fast food almost entirely (I mostly cook for myself), but food deserts are real and many people have few reasonable options. I don't think anyone eating McDonald's is under the impression that it's good for them.
It's just corporate-speak for "How can we change the menu so we still make the same amount of money, while confusing the customer into thinking they're spending less"
They're taking a "forensic approach". They're "working to create value", instead of just lowering their artificially jacked up prices. This means they're trying to create more value for shareholders and execs, not customers - obviously, not surprising, just interesting seeing the way they weasel themselves around the actual issue.
McDs always has the worst flavor of the fast food choices in my estimation... Do they still taste like a gas station burger except smaller patties and flavored like someone spilled sugar on the grill?
I don't go to McDonald's often. But the last time I went I couldn't believe the prices, and worse was the quality. Since COVID everything has gone up but McDonald's doubled that and dropped quality too. It is so terrible now. Even considering the low standard it had before.
I tried the "value" meal they introduced recently. There was also a coupon for buy one 6 piece get one for .29 cents so it was enough food to share with others. I could've sworn the burger and chicken sandwich meals were supposed to be $5 but the burger one was $6. I get it and I was stupid and didn't check it, sure enough they forgot the sandwich... so glad they offered such great value.
I've been in restaurants for most of my adult life, and even our own pricing has gotten out of hand. I don't like it, but that's food costs. We can't sell a protein dish for $10 if the protein is $7.50 at cost. I'm not getting McDonald's back here, I'm sure their corporate greed is excessive, but it's not just them dealing with higher priced food. We try to make as much as we can in house to avoid preservatives and chemical bullshit, as well as maintaining a lower cost, but even that is getting to be too much and finding skilled labor that can prep things that a lot of other restaurants buy outright is getting expensive, too. Luckily, the place I work at now is a brewery as well, and the beer sales can subsidize our food costs, but if we didn't have that beer, we'd be fucking done.
Their food is a result of decades of small incremental changes to make the food cheaper and profitable, a few pennies at a time. Fast forward to today and what MacDonald's has to offer now doesn't even taste like burgers anymore.
meanwhile burger king (at least in sweden) gives you 2 chicken royale meals and 2 crispy chicken burgers for 16.6 USD, since discovering that they have these infinite-use coupons we've been actually able to afford some fast food for once.